Kallid awoke surrounded by his children. It was the third day he’d spent without Kreet and the constriction in his chest hit just as hard as on the first. He’d spent two days thinking about what he should do. Wherever she was, she would be trying to find her way back - that much was a certainty.

So the smart thing to do would be to stay put. But every day that passed made that more and more impossible. He had made friends here, to be sure. The bedroom his family slept in had been offered on a more or less permanent basis. But it wasn’t home. No where was home without Kreet.

Restless as he was, though, what could he do? He couldn’t just strike out randomly. How could he possibly discover where she had gone?

Kallindra turned over in her sleep, which reoriented his thoughts. And what about them? He could probably leave them with Aunt Tribi, who was already becoming their surrogate mother. That would effectively orphan them - when both their parents were alive. But they would be safe in the city. Out in the wild? The dangers would be manifold. He could imagine Kreet emphatically shaking her head. She would certainly not approve.

He’d been thrashing it out in his head for two days, and he’d finally decided. It was probably stupid, but he simply could not remain here while his wife was out there somewhere. If he could somehow discover where she was, they would go to her. All of them. He might be small, his skills minor and his experience in the wild not the best. He might well be dooming his small family. But without Kreet it was his decision to make. He knew it wasn’t the wise decision, but he’d never been accused of being a wise kobold.

That left one hell of a big if though.

Who would know where she was? He kept coming back to only one answer to that question. Only the gods knew. He’d met one god, but he had a strong impression that Eilistraee would be unable to help him. She hadn’t guided Kreet when she was looking for her former home - plus she was probably busy being a mother herself somewhere now with Sig.

No, Kallid knew of only one other god likely to help him, and that was Kreet’s god. Pelor. And he knew of only one person that might be able to get in touch with him. He had to go see the BIshop.

He had no idea the proper protocols for such things however. But Aunt Tribi would, and she would be arriving shortly.

*************

The human household began to wake up an hour later. Already the kobolds had shifted their schedule to the humans’ primarily daylight schedule. Aunt Tribi showed up an hour after that and gathered both the kobold and human children into the common area for what she called ‘schooling’. It amazed Kallid that the children could be so enraptured by Aunt Tribi that they would sit relatively quietly while she expounded on some subject or other. In fact, he’d found he was a little jealous of the kids. They were learning things while he felt he was wasting time. But not today.

“Miss Tribi?” he interrupted later, after she’d given the kids a drawing assignment and they were all busy at their slate boards.

She turned around with a start. He marvelled that she still hadn’t quite gotten used to him and was obviously a little nervous when in his company.

“Oh! Yes Kallid? What can I do for you?”

“Well, I’ve been thinking about it and… I need to speak with the Bishop. You’re right there at the cathedral. How could I get an audience with her?”

“With the Bishop?” she pondered, scrunching her snout up in thought. “Let me just ask her tonight when I go back. Tomorrow I’ll let you know.”

“Really? You can just ask her?”

“Oh certainly! She’s not some aloof person around the place. But it would be best to make a formal meeting time. She’s quite busy, you know.”

“Thank you Miss Tribi,” he said, taking her hand in the human gesture of sincere thanks. “Really!”

She froze at the touch, but Kallid had gotten used to her reactions to him. She almost never fainted anymore.

He left her, finished dressing and went back to where the work of clearing the old tavern was continuing to lend his own small but willing hand.

*********************

Their meeting this time was in the Bishop’s own rooms in a small building that the priests lived in behind the cathedral. Happily the Bishop greeted him as he was walking up to it, so he was spared the not-unusual shock of someone seeing a kobold knocking at their door. She was dressed in nearly normal clothes, which gave him some relief. However, his determination was set and he had only to think of Kreet momentarily to gain courage. This Bishop was, in the end, just another human after all.

“Oh! Hello Kallid!” She said, rising from her seat on the rectory’s porch. “Come in, come in! What can I do for you?”

He mounted the stairs awkwardly as she opened the front door for him, ushering him inside.

“Well, first I came to thank you and the King most of all for the help in clearing the rubble. And the offer to rebuild.”

She led him up some stairs to a large private chamber on the second floor. The building wasn’t large but it seemed solid and sturdy. The furnishings reflected that impression - antique and well worn, but in good repair.

“Oh, it’s our pleasure of course. Kreet meant a lot to us too. Losing her… well, it’s a loss even felt by the King himself. He’s told me so directly.”

“But… you know she’s not dead, right?” Kallid said after she’d closed the door and indicated a seat.

“The resurrection stone. And her body was never found. Yes, I think it’s very likely she’s not.”

“Bishop Wynda, I have to find her,” Kallid said, getting to the point. “Please understand, I have to find her. I cannot stay here without her!”

The Bishop rose and crossed to a window.

“Kallid, grief…” she began, but Kallid interrupted her

“It’s NOT grief, Bishop! I’m sorry if I seem rude, but she’s not dead and it’s not grief. I am leaving. That much is certain. What is not certain is where I am to go. I’ve been thinking about it, and only the gods can know where that stone might have taken her. You’re my only connection to the gods, Bishop. Kreet put her life in your god’s hands. He gave her powers. He must know this.”

The Bishop looked down at Kallid, standing now earnestly at her feet.

She knelt to be at a level with him, and put a hand on his shoulder.

“Kallid, Pelor doesn’t work like some gods. He doesn’t manifest himself to us.”

“He brings light to dark places,” Kallid said, obstinately refusing to accept anything resembling her refusal to help. “This is bringing light to me. Because I’m in total darkness right now, Bishop. I can’t see where she is. She needs me, Bishop. Wherever she is, I know this in my heart. She needs me, but I can’t see where she is.”

His voice began to break, but he went on. He could not fail in this.

“I think he would want me to know. Pelor I mean.”

The Bishop nodded.

“Let’s find out, Kallid. Let’s find out right here and now. We will pray. It doesn’t matter if you are a follower of his or not. That is how we commune with the Lord of Light. We pray.”

She had walked across the room and indicated a structure with a kneeling pad.

“I will pray in my way here. But the position doesn’t really matter. You sit here beside me and pray with me, Kallid. If Pelor wishes this, he will grant us a vision. If not… if not I cannot help.”

Kallid thought it was probably hopeless, but he sat on the floor beside where the Bishop knelt.

“Think of light, Kallid. Think of the sun and it’s rays and warmth. That is our god, Kallid.”

Kallid closed his eyes and tried his best to do what she asked. He wasn’t at all sure he was doing it right, but he tried. Yet as he imagined the rays of the sun, he imagined them falling upon the earth - but then entering a great hole in the earth. The rays reached down deep underground. They struck something golden, and were reflected in a million directions, one for each scale of its massive wings. It was moving, though it was hard to grasp what that movement signified. The wings formed into its back and neck. The head rose up and his viewpoint backed off to take in the whole sight.

It was a dragon, of course. There could be no doubt of that. But the eyes were purest white. No pupil broke their perfect symmetry. It was as if instead of taking in light from around them, the dragon’s eyes sent that light out into the world.

And then it looked at him and smiled. The teeth gleamed and instantly Kallid fell back.

“Whoa!” he exclaimed, clamboring back to his feet. Suddenly he was back in the rectory beside the BIshop.

She opened her eyes and looked at him, and for an instant they were the eyes of the dragon, and his heart skipped a beat. But then he looked again and they were just the Bishop’s eyes.

“You saw something? Did our Lord reveal something to you as well?”

Kallid stood up, nodding rapidly. “A dragon! A golden dragon!”

“Yes. I saw it too. But I saw more, Kallid. I saw… home. Her home.”

Kallid cocked his head to one side. “What do you mean?”

“You must go to Fallon. You must go to where she grew up.”

“She’s there?”

“No, Kallid. She is not there now. But she will be there,” the Bishop said simply but with a confidence that made the scales flow up his back.

He couldn’t help it. He was a kobold and not a human. He didn’t have years of training in proper decorum and human norms. In an instant he was overcome with emotion that had barely been kept in check these last three days.

He fairly leapt upon the Bishop, wrapping his arms around her neck and his feet and tail around her back, crying all the while.

“Oh thank you, Bishop! Thank you Pelor!”

The Bishop laughed and staggered over to the bed where she set the kobold down.

“Oh Kallid, it’s okay. There’s a reason we dedicate ourselves to him, you know!”

“I’m sorry, Bishop Wynda. It’s a little too much for me. But I have a path now! I know where to go!”

“You do! Do you need to leave the children here? We have a small orphanage we can put them in while you’re gone. It’s well run, I can assure you! They’ll not be mistreated.”

Kallid climbed down from the bed.

“No. I’m taking them with me,” he said, quite resolute.

“Taking them with you?” the Bishop responded, suddenly concerned. “Kallid, are you sure that’s wise? It’s a very, very long way and summer is waning.”

“I’m taking them with me,” he repeated. “I will not abandon my children, Bishop. I will not.”

The Bishop thought quickly.

“Will you give me some time? I think I can prepare an escort for you, at least to the limits of the King’s realm. Please let me do that. For them if not for you. A week? Give me a week.”

Kallid nodded. “Gladly. I know where I’m going. I don’t have to rush getting there.”